Slingshot tutorials

Slingshot is a child's game to entertain adults

A child’s play...
Of course a slingshot is child’s play. But since we’ve a little forgotten the gestures of old, we need to relearn — or even learn for the first time — how to do it properly.

Holding the handle (gangster style)
The most common grip for accurate shooting is to hold the slingshot horizontally, meaning the line joining the tips of the forks is vertical.

And this grip with the vertical forks is valid whatever the type of slingshot.

In both cases, the hand is tilted, which unbalances the forces of the elastics, and the shot cannot be precise.

In this case the grip may seem correct, but, and it is the problem of the arm supports which blocks the direction of the slingshot in the direction of the arm, but not necessarily in the direction of the target, if the aiming point is on the ground or in the trees, then the forces of the elastics are unbalanced and the shot is disturbed.

And there it is cute, but it's rubbish... in terms of handling... of the slingshot... but hey, it's cute...

Anchoring

Anchoring is the position of the hand holding the ball by pressing precisely and repetitively against the cheek.

Now we need to understand why we hold the handle like this, vertically:

when we hold the ball in the shooting pocket with the elastics stretched, the ball will be located under the dominant eye, the one that aims, and therefore we will have an imaginary vertical line that will connect the eye to the ball, and this vertical line will echo the vertical line that will connect the ends of the forks. Thus we will be certain that the fired ball will leave in the correct vertical plane, which passes through the target: and this is already a good first step.

Note: If we have understood this, and if we have mastered the position and the aim well, then we can imagine tilting the slingshot a little, to shoot with a non-vertical position, if we manage to make the angle of the ends of the forks coincide with the angle between the eye and the passage of the ball: but this is not necessary and it is useless for learning:

Et donc l'ancrage va consister à bien positionner la bille en tension à la verticale de l’œil pour assurer qu'elle partira dans le même plan qui passe par l'extrémité des fourches donc qui passe aussi par la cible. Mais ce réglage ne suffit pas car il va falloir aussi assurer le tir en hauteur pour que la bille passe par le bon plan , mais aussi à la bonne hauteur, celle de la cible.

Le plan de tir étant assuré (quand je tire, l'impact de la bille reste à la verticale, plus haut ou plus bas que la cible), il faut régler l'ancrage pour régler la hauteur de l'impact.

L’œil vise la cible et positionne le système de visée de la fourche sur la cible : à ce niveau là , plus rien ne bouge, et c'est la main qui tient la bille qui va ajuster la hauteur du tir :

- je tire plus haut si je baisse mon ancrage

- je tire plus bas si je relève mon ancrage

(les réglages sont infimes : 2 mm plus haut ou plus bas au niveau de la joue et ça fait plusieurs centimètres d'écart à 8 m)

Well now you have to shoot — and shoot some more — with balls, and keep the basics in mind: slingshot held horizontally, anchor point aligned vertically with the eye, and fine adjustment of the anchor point up and down.

Final tip:
Start at 5 m between the target and the slingshot — it’s plenty to dial in your aim before shooting at longer distances. Use soft but fast bands, for example a “2040” type with 8 mm balls; that’s ideal for learning.